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מָרָה

mara · rebel

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H4784 · appears 45 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

mara (מָרָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “rebel”.

Resist what is commanded.

How to say it

ma·ra

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

  1. To refuse to obey, above all YHWH, resisting his word.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To rebel, to resist the one who commands. The Hebrew phrase ‘rebel against the mouth of YHWH’ is disobeying his command.

Historical and cultural background

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 regulates the case of the “stubborn and rebellious son” who does not listen to his father or his mother. Because of the rebellion at the waters of Meribah, Aaron and Moses did not enter the land (Numbers 20:24).

How we translate it

מָרָה אֶת־פִּי is ‘rebel against the command’ (“rebelled” 25 times, “rebel” 6); as an adjective, “rebellious” (8) or “rebels”, next to סוֹרֵר, ‘stubborn’ (“stubborn and rebellious”, Deuteronomy 21:18). Where the sense is bitterness it reads “was bitter” (1 Samuel 30:6; 2 Kings 14:26).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

  • rebelled ×25
  • rebellious ×8
  • rebel ×6
  • bitter ×2
  • rebels ×2
  • provocations ×1
  • rebelling ×1

Related words

Words that come from it

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

  • Numbers 20:10

    And Moses and Aaron assembled the assembly in front of the crag, and he said to them, “Hear, please, you rebels! Shall we bring out water for you from this crag?”

  • Numbers 20:24

    “Aaron shall be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah.

  • Numbers 27:14

    because you rebelled against my command in the wilderness of Zin, in the strife of the community, instead of sanctifying me at the waters before their eyes.” These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.

  • Deuteronomy 1:26

    But you were not willing to go up, and you rebelled against the command of YHWH your Elohim.

  • Deuteronomy 1:43

    So I spoke to you, but you did not listen; you rebelled against the command of YHWH, acted presumptuously, and went up into the hill country.

  • Deuteronomy 9:7

    Remember, do not forget, how you made YHWH your Elohim angry in the wilderness. From the day that you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against YHWH.

  • Deuteronomy 9:23

    And when YHWH sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, “Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,” you rebelled against the command of YHWH your Elohim; you did not believe him or listen to his voice.

  • Deuteronomy 9:24

    You have been rebellious against YHWH from the day that I knew you.

  • Deuteronomy 21:18

    If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not listen to the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and they discipline him and he will not listen to them,

  • Deuteronomy 21:20

    and they shall say to the elders of his city, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not listen to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.”

  • Deuteronomy 31:27

    For I know your rebelliousness and your stubbornness. Look, while I am still alive with you today, you have been rebellious against YHWH; how much more after my death!

  • Joshua 1:18

    Any man who rebels against your command and does not listen to your words in all that you command him shall be put to death. Only be strong and firm.”

  • 1 Samuel 12:14

    If you fear YHWH and serve him and listen to his voice and do not rebel against the command of YHWH, and both you and the king who reigns over you are following after YHWH your Elohim…

  • 1 Samuel 12:15

    But if you do not listen to the voice of YHWH and rebel against the command of YHWH, then the hand of YHWH will be against you and against your fathers.

  • 1 Samuel 30:6

    David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was bitter, each for his sons and for his daughters. But David strengthened himself in YHWH his Elohim.

  • 1 Kings 13:21

    and he cried out to the man of Elohim who had come from Judah, saying, “Thus says YHWH: ‘Because you have rebelled against the command of YHWH and have not kept the commandment that YHWH your Elohim commanded you,

  • 1 Kings 13:26

    When the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, “It is the man of Elohim who rebelled against the command of YHWH; so YHWH has given him to the lion, and it has mauled him and put him to death, according to the word of YHWH that he spoke to him.”

  • 2 Kings 14:26

    For YHWH saw the affliction of Israel, very bitter; there was none kept and none left, and there was no helper for Israel.

  • Nehemiah 9:26

    But they were rebellious and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and your prophets they killed, who testified against them to turn them back to you; and they committed great acts of contempt.

  • Job 17:2

    Surely there are mockeries with me, and on their provocations my eye spends the night.

  • Psalms 5:10

    Declare them guilty, Elohim; let them fall by their designs. In the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.

  • Psalms 78:8

    and not be like their fathers, a generation obstinate and rebellious, a generation that did not make steady its heart, and whose spirit was not faithful to El.

  • Psalms 78:17

    But they went on still sinning against him, rebelling against Elyon in the dry land.

  • Psalms 78:40

    How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, grieved him in the wasteland!

  • Psalms 78:56

    But they put him to the test and rebelled against Elohim Elyon, and his testimonies they did not keep.

  • Psalms 105:28

    He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they did not rebel against his word.

  • Psalms 106:7

    Our fathers in Egypt did not understand your wonders; they did not remember the abundance of your loyal love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Sea of Reeds.

  • Psalms 106:33

    for they rebelled against his spirit, and he spoke rashly with his lips.

  • Psalms 106:43

    Many times he would deliver them, but they rebelled in their counsel, and sank low in their iniquity.

  • Psalms 107:11

    for they had rebelled against the sayings of El, and the counsel of Elyon they had despised.

  • Isaiah 1:20

    but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of YHWH has spoken.

  • Isaiah 3:8

    For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their tongue and their deeds are against YHWH, to rebel against the eyes of his glory.

  • Isaiah 50:5

    Adonai YHWH has opened my ear, and I did not rebel; I did not turn back.

  • Isaiah 63:10

    But they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit; so he turned to be their enemy; he himself fought against them.

  • Jeremiah 4:17

    Like keepers of a field they are against her all around, for she has rebelled against me, declares YHWH.

  • Jeremiah 5:23

    But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.

  • Lamentations 1:18

    “Righteous is he, YHWH, for against his mouth I have rebelled; hear, please, all the peoples, and see my pain; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

  • Lamentations 1:20

    See, YHWH, that I am in distress; my insides are in turmoil; my heart is overturned within me, for I have rebelled and rebelled; outside the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.

  • Lamentations 3:42

    We have transgressed and rebelled; you have not forgiven.

  • Ezekiel 5:6

    And it rebelled against my rules with wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the lands that are around it; for my rules they rejected, and as for my statutes, they did not walk in them.”

And 5 more times.